Tale of the Shinobi
by Riley Bilstaen
Summary: Everything was looking up with Pain defeated and the casualties of his attack against the Hidden Leaf Village returned from the dead, but no one could have predicted the turn of events that followed it. Sucked into the sky through an interdimensional vortex, Naruto finds himself stranded in a world of magic with no way back home. What's a shinobi to do but adapt?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

A young girl barged into the meeting chambers in the Royal Castle of the Kingdom of Edolas. With every step she took, the pair of large floppy dog-like ears that hung down from her green hat bounced behind her.

She seemed to be unable to run in a straight line, instead moving along a curvy path that ensured that she had practically stepped everywhere that she possibly could between the door and the table where the meeting was taking place. She even ran around the table completely, as if she had not attracted the attention of the occupants in the room already. She finally came to a stop at the foot of it, facing the King of Edolas, Faust.

Giving a sharp salute to the King, and without a hint of fear after interrupting a meeting that she knew was not to be interrupted, she spoke clearly and loudly. "Your Majesty, sorry for the interruption, but the Magical Research and Development Department has an urgent message to report."

Faust eyed the girl critically with clear annoyance visible in his expression. That was to be expected though. After all, he had specifically asked not to be disturbed during such the current meeting. They had just been discussing the new measure to outlaw guilds and mages in the Kingdom. The wizened man raised a brow at her before he spoke, "For what reason do you interrupt a meeting which I had specifically ordered _not_ to be disturbed," he asked in a tone that would have made the average man want to flee. "And who are you?"

She did not even look disturbed as she ran around the table once again, small clouds of dust trailing after her. She stopped at the exact spot she had stood previously.

"I'm Coco, a messenger from the Communications department, your Magesty," she answered. "The Magical Research and Development Department's Anima division has reported an abnormality regarding the magical activity of the interdimensional gate." She paused, appearing uncertain. "Chief Byro mentioned that the abnormality was related to a series of events that last happened sixteen years ago."

As if on cue, Byro, the Chief of Staff to the King, hobbled inside the council room. The bald, stocky goblin-like man looked uncharacteristically happy, which made him look quite disturbing. He locked eyes with Faust. "It is confirmed," he said with a hint of glee. "We have found it again, and this time it lasted long enough for us to lock onto the target."

Faust's eyes widened in shock at that. He immediately looked at the men that he had been meeting with and uttered a single word. "Leave."

One of the captains of the Royal Army, Sugarboy, was displeased with the sudden interruption and interjected, "Your Majesty, what about-"

Faust looked around the table at this point and decided to cut off all conversation. "The basis of the new law has been laid out. We will show the people of Edolas that we will not tolerate the existence of guilds and mages outside of the Royal Army. The eradication of dark guilds that dare to threaten the peace of our Kingdom will begin as planned. If they refuse, they will have to face the full power of our might. _That is all._"

No one decided to object after that point.

King Faust watched as Byro closed the door to the council room after the last of the council members had trailed out.

"Is it true?" he asked impatiently. "Has the source been located?"

"The magical technicians have been able to pinpoint the origins of the source that we detected sixteen years ago," he answered. "As we discovered at that time, it is not exactly magical power that we are detecting, but it is a similar type of energy that we should be able to adapt. Until we know for certain how potent it is, I fear we cannot estimate how much power it is. If it was magical power, however, this one source would grant us power for the next ten years. Now that we have been able to lock onto this new world, this would just be the beginning too."

Fause slumped back in his seat, taking deep breaths as he tried to process what the end results of this new discovery could mean. "An entirely new dimension," he breathed, absently massaging his chest. "Is it possible?"

Byro nodded in response. "One must never underestimate the will of magic, your Majesty. It is logical to assume that with this new discovery that there could be hundreds, even thousands of parallel dimensions other than what we've discovered. The possibilities are endless."

Faust suddenly stiffened. "And what of the Anima? Is it compatible to be used with this new dimension?"

Byro's grin faltered for a moment at that question. "We are not sure. It is not a parallel dimension to Edolas, so the only way to know for certain is to attempt it. Our technicians are in the process of charging the machine as we speak. The preparations will be coming to a close within the hour, so it won't be long before we know for certain, your Majesty."

"Very good," Faust stated as he sat up. "I will trust you to see to the extraction from this new world. And if it fails, you will simply have to find out how to adjust the Anima so that it does not fail again. It would not do to focus entirely on this new dimension though. We still have Earthland to contend with, after all. Now, go and make sure that it is going smoothly."

Byro bowed low and verbally agreed to his request, not wanting to say that he had already planned to do so beforehand. The Chief of Staff gave the customary respectful greeting to the King and left.

* * *

Naruto Uzumaki was standing across from Konan, watching as she covered Nagato in sheets of paper that formed a cocoon-like shell around him.

He was not sure what to say after her friend had given his life to resurrect all of the people that had died when he attacked the Hidden Leaf Village. He could not honestly apologize since he would have preferred Nagato's death over the deaths of his comrades.

His eyes widened in surprise as she began to cover Nagato's Deva Path's body in the same shell of paper.

"You're taking him too?" Naruto asked. He had to assume that she was taking those bodies with her when she left. It was the only reason he could see for her wrapping them in a material that she had complete control over.

"Deva Path was created from Yahiko's corpse," Konan said as she looked at the young shinobi. "He was very special to us. It would not be right for me to leave him."

"That's Yahiko?" Naruto asked in surprise, though he managed to keep his voice low. He definitely knew who Yahiko was after hearing Nagato's story about his past. In that context, he understood why Konan would take his body with her.

"Yes," Konan said solemnly as she finished forming the shell around the corpse. "He was Nagato's first path."

The pair stayed quiet for a moment after that, but Naruto had a big question that he needed to ask.

"What do you plan to do?" Naruto asked as he stared at the Akatsuki member. "I don't think you're going to return to Akatsuki after this. It just doesn't seem like something you'd do. You followed Nagato because he was your friend, didn't you?"

Konan nodded before she spoke. "I am through with Akatsuki. You misunderstand how close we were. It was not as though we were merely friends. They were everything to me, much like your village is everything to you."

Naruto considered that for a moment. He could not imagine losing everything that meant anything to him. It was simply unthinkable.

"Yahiko's dream… Nagato's dream… they have been entrusted to you. Just as Nagato believed in you, I will believe in you as well. To that end, the Hidden Rain will help you make that dream come true," Konan said with a hint of determination in her voice.

"I also have our sensei's dream to fulfill, and I won't let any of them down. That's what my master and my fellow pupil have given me-" Naruto began, but he stopped suddenly.

"What's that?" he asked as he looked up.

Konan's eyes shot up as well, and she could not help but be shocked as well.

Above them, the clouds seemed to be spiraling around what looked like a hole in the sky.

"This feeling," Naruto muttered as he felt himself being drawn up.

"What could this be?" Konan asked as she too felt herself being drawn up. She did not hesitate as she began to manipulate the paper surrounding her old friends and started to move.

Only a couple of seconds later, Naruto felt the power of Anima.

There was nothing quite like the sensation that he felt as he was literally sucked up into the vortex in the sky. It was only moderately painful, though his definition of moderately painful was what had most people screaming that they wanted to die. But if he was ever to describe the sensation again, he would describe it as having his entirely body stretched as though he was being pulled from both ends, while being lifted into the air and spinning around and around. The only good thing about the sensation was that it only lasted about fifteen seconds.

* * *

"What's going on?" Gamabunta asked as he looked into the crystal ball that he had been watching Naruto's fight with the Elder Sage Toad through. "I've never seen a vortex like that in the air.

"This is not good," the Elder Sage Toad said with a grimace. "I am not sure what it can do, Bunta, but I do know this… the future of the shinobi world will become clouded even to me if he is swallowed up by that.

"I need to act fast then," Gamabunta said as he watched Naruto begin to be sucked through the vortex in the sky. He only had one idea of how to save the last toad summoner. He could perform a Reverse Summoning Jutsu.

"Stop," the Elder Sage Toad said grimly. "He has already been brought thought the vortex, and we have no idea how it will affect the vortex. I see nothing but devastation if we attempt to reverse summon him now. We can attempt to reverse summon him later, when it is unlikely that he is still in the vortex."

Gamabunta looked down. Though the Elder Sage Toad offered hope, he simply found it hard to believe that such a thing would end up working.

And he was right.

* * *

In his office in the Royal Castle of Edolas, Byro had a noticeable twitch in his right eye. His attention was transfixed on the messenger in front of him. "What does this mean?"

"It's j-just as I reported, sir. T-the Anima malfunctioned_,_" the hooded messenger repeated nervously as he handed a report to Byro. "It appears the Anima was able to enter the new dimension and began to bring something back, but on the reverse trip, it seems to have broken completely apart. Nothing returned here, and the Anima machine broke."

Byro angrily snatched the report away from the messenger and flipped through it. "Get me the technicians!" he snarled, fingers clenched tightly as he crumpled the report with a satisfying crunch.

The messenger remained rooted to the ground. "Sir?"

"You heard me, you fool! Get me the technicians now!" Byro screamed angrily.

"Yes, sir!" The messenger saluted to his superior before he dashed out of the office, getting as far away from the incensed Chief of Staff as possible.

Byro slammed the report on his desk and glared at it.

He had never considered that the Anima would fail. It was a risk, of course. But it was not a risk that he had ever expected.

And to make things worse, it turned out that the Anima machine was unable to handle being used in dimensions that were not parallel to Edolas. This meant that it would have to be fixed, or rebuilt if the damage was severe enough, before it could even be used in Earthland. They would then need to work on strengthening the Anima so that it could handle being used in the new world. Getting it just right would take years at the very least.

The major issue with the situation, however, was that they had managed to lock onto the target that Faust had desired most. Given that the Anima had broken apart before reaching Edolas, that meant that the target was almost certainly lost between dimensions.

Byro gulped nervously, thinking of what awaited him when he explained the situation to Faust.

Thirty years ago, they had discovered a source of nearly unimaginable power in a new dimension, but they had failed to lock in on it due to how underdeveloped the Anima was at the time.

Sixteen years ago, they had discovered a similar source of power that was even more bountiful than the previous one. However, that discovery had occurred in the middle of the night, and the only members of the Anima division that had been present lacked the knowledge as to how to operate the Anima.

Ever since the last incident it had consumed both of their thoughts. Such power would greatly benefit Edolas, after all.

Once Faust learned that it had failed and the primary target was forever out of their reach, he would surely face punishment, the likes of which he would never forget. After all, Faust was not a man to be displeased.

Unfortunately, he could not even stall the information from reaching Faust. The only think that he hated worse than bad news was bad news that had been delayed from reaching his ears.

Once the technicians arrived, he would need to make sure that they had not made a mistake during the process. If they simply made a mistake, then the news would not be as bad.

Unfortunately for him, he would not be able to find anything to blame on anyone else.

* * *

Anima was not something intended for transport between dimensions that were not parallel to each other. That was a simple fact that had been accepted by the man who had created it. Unfortunately, Faust had him executed after he created the Anima machine and handed the blueprints for it over to the King of Edolas.

If he had still be around, he could have predicted what would happen if such a thing was attempted. With the quality of the current Anima machine, the Anima would break apart into three or four pieces as it neared Edolas. No one noticed one piece of it appeared in the sky above Edolas, which might have offered answers to the technicians that worked on the Anima machine. The other three pieces, however, actually appeared in the sky above Earthland.

In the sky above the road that ran from Crocus to Magnolia, one of the pieces of the Anima appeared. It was from that broken piece of the Anima that Naruto found himself falling from.

The sensation of free-falling from about three hundred feet in the air was actually a thrilling experience in Naruto's opinion. It was the knowledge that certain death stood at the bottom of that distance that unnerved him.

His first instinct was to pull out Sage Mode since it would enable him to simply destroy what he hit without causing serious harm to himself.

Unfortunately, he was free-falling. A toad might have been able to stay still on the shoulder of a moving person, but Naruto was the only thing moving up there. Absorbing Natural Energy while he was falling was simply not a possibility.

He also thought about drawing on the Kyubi's chakra since it made him quite durable.

Unfortunately, he had gone into his eight tailed state against Pain and did not feel like he could handle drawing on enough of its chakra to form a cloak. If he did not draw on enough to even form a cloak, then it would be pointless though.

Taking a deep breath, he formed his signature hand sign.

"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu," he said, creating around one hundred shadow clones in front of him.

"Grab onto each other!" Naruto shouted. Before he even spoke, they made their move though. They formed a large wall of clones in front of him by locking their arms and legs together.

Angling himself carefully, Naruto sped to the wall of clones and did a flip mid-air. That allowed him to land on the wall of clones, standing.

As they neared the ground, he used a chakra enhanced jump, allowing him to neutralize a great deal of his momentum and ensuring that the ground was softened by his clones' landing when he reached it.

He still hit the ground hard when he came down from his jump, but if he had just fallen, he would have most likely resembled a pancake instead of simply being sore.

"Where am I?" he asked as he looked around.

"I am not sure."

Naruto's eyes widened as he heard the voice come from the neck of his coat. Glancing down, he saw a small slug climbing out of his coat. He had forgotten that he had a small part of Katsuyu with him.

"Any idea what happened?" he asked.

"I have a suspicion. Please try to summon Gamabunta. If you can, put more than enough chakra into it to summon him," Katsuyu said.

Nodding, Naruto attempted to summon Gamabunta, though he found that he lacked the chakra to put too much into it. Still, he should have easily been able to summon the massive toad.

Instead, he summoned a tadpole that only lasted about ten seconds before it dispelled.

"It is as I thought," Katsuyu said in a tone that conveyed disappointment. "That vortex that you were caught by seems to have sent us to another dimension. It is not something I expected to happen, but it is possible. It is the only thing that can explain my inability to communicate with my other divisions mentally, along with your inability to summon anything bigger than a tadpole. Interdimensional summoning is not something can be done easily."

"Hang on a second," Naruto said with his eyes widening in alarm. "I'm in another dimension? You've got to be kidding me. And where's Konan? She was standing near me, so why isn't she here?"

"I am serious, though I do not know where she is. It is possible that she moved out of its range when she saw the vortex in the sky. My attention was not on her," Katsuyu said patiently. "I will inform Lady Tsunade of what happened once I run out of chakra though. Summons always return to their home when they run out of chakra, so being in another dimension won't stop me from being able to return home. Getting a message to you after I return will not be easy by any means though. I am not sure how we would go about it."

"So in other words, I'm screwed until you guys can find a way to get me back home?" Naruto asked with a frown.

"It might be a good idea for you to try to find a way back as well. If nothing else, it should alleviate some boredom," Katsuyu replied. "Oh, and it might be a good idea if you removed your forehead protector. We do not know anything about this world. Until you do, I would suggest that you do not have any marks of allegiance on you."

"Right," Naruto grumbled as he removed his forehead protector and put it in his hip pouch. "How long do you have until you disappear?"

"I have around an hour," she answered.

"In that case, I'm going to go Sage Mode so I can find out if anyone's around," Naruto said as he sat down. "By the way, do you know anything about what happened when I was fighting Pain?"

"If you are wondering if anyone was harmed when lost control, then the answer is no. To my knowledge, Pain's final act restored everyone to life as well, so even if you had harmed someone when you lost control, they would still have been alive when the vortex caught us," Katsuyu answered.

"That's good to hear," Naruto said before he took a deep breath and began to meditate.

After only a minute, he opened his eyes and rose to his feet in Sage Mode.

"It's time to head to the nearest town. I sense a lot of people not far from here," Naruto said as he began to run.

"Do try to be careful. It would not do for anyone to learn that we are not from this world," Katsuyu said.

"Right," Naruto said with a nervous chuckle. He had actually failed to consider how that might be a big deal to some of the natives.

* * *

A/N- This is just an idea that popped into my head when reading great Naruto/Fairy Tail crossovers where Naruto relies solely on his ninja skills. I wanted to see if I could write a decent story like this, so it's kind of experimental for me at the moment. I'm not thinking about a specific pairing right now, but I do have a fairly well thought out plan for it. I'm always open to questions and suggestions though.

Anyways, I have one more chapter already written out. It's about the same length, and I'll post it later.

Hope you liked the chapter, and thanks for giving it a chance.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Naruto ran for only a few minutes before he sensed someone approaching quickly. He was maybe a mile and a half from the dense population that he had sensed earlier, but he got the feeling that he needed to focus on the approaching person instead.

His eyes widened as mist seemed to gather together a dozen yards before him and take the form of a man that seemed intent on covering his entire body in clothes. He even wore a mask somewhat similar to Kakashi's that covered the lower half of his face and a bandana with a plain forehead protector on it that covered up his hair. He also had five staves on his back with a variety of different ends on them.

"There's no mistaking it," the man said as he removed one of the staves from his back. It appeared to have a fan on the end of it. "You are the one that passed through the Anima. Who are you?"

"I should be asking you that," Naruto said as he maintained a calm stance. Truthfully, he was just trying to stand still so that he could draw in some more natural energy. If he had to fight the man, he did not want his Sage Mode to end prematurely.

Something did not add up though. The blank forehead protector on the man's bandana was highly irregular. The lack of a scratch across it and a black cloak with red clouds on it made it clear that he was not from the Akatsuki. Of course, him being in a different dimension and not knowing who Naruto was were even greater indications that he was not from that group.

"Just answer the question," the man said firmly. "I would prefer that I don't have to fight you, but if you passed through the Anima, I need answers."

"Anima… is that what you call that vortex that sucked me up?" Naruto asked with a frown.

The man seemed to be caught off guard by the question, but he nodded in response. Naruto got the distinct impression that he was confused.

"Naruto, if he knows about the vortex, then it might be for the best that you tell him what happened," Katsuyu whispered.

"Right," Naruto mumbled. "That thing… the Anima, you called it… it sucked me up in it and dropped me out of the sky. Is there any way to get back?"

"Are you from Edolas?" the man asked cautiously.

"Never heard of it before in my life," Naruto responded. "I'm from the Land of Fire… the Hidden Leaf Village, to be exact. It's in the Elemental Nations. Ever heard of it?"

"No," the man said in a tone that gave him the distinct impression that the man was frowning beneath the mask. "If you are not from Edolas or Earthland, then it is unlikely that you can return home. They are parallel dimensions, which is the only reason that it is possible to pass between them with only the level of difficult that already exists. But this Elemental Nations has to be a completely different world. The fact that you are in Earthland instead of Edolas hints at the difficulty, if not impossibility, of safely traveling returning to your world. The only machine that generates Anima is in Edolas, which means that you were supposed to be brought there instead of Earthland. If you landed in a dimension parallel to the one you were supposed to arrive in, then that means that any attempt to return would likely result in you landing in a dimension parallel to your world… or even into a void between dimensions. That would be a fate worse than death."

Naruto just looked at the man flatly, not understanding what he was saying.

"Simply put, you cannot return to our world the way you arrived. You were supposed to land in the world that is parallel to this one, so the risks involved in returning the same way are too great to even consider," Katsuyu explained. "Perhaps there is another way."

The man stared at the talking slug for a moment before speaking. "To my knowledge, Anima is the only way to move between dimensions. If there is anyone that knows of a way or can point you to someone that may know of a way, then that person is Makarov Dreyar. He is the Master of Fairy Tail and is in the city not too far from us."

"Fairy Tail?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Fairy Tail is a mage guild," the man answered.

"Mage? As in magic? There's magic in this world?" Naruto asked in disbelief.

"Yes," the man said in surprise. "Is there not magic in your world?"

"No, but we have something kind of like it, I guess," Naruto said as he held his hand out and began to form a Rasengan. It was not a complete Rasengan due to the fact that he only used one hand to create it, but it mostly looked complete. In Sage Mode, it was likely stroke enough to match a normal complete Rasengan.

"Interesting," the man said. "Well, about ten percent of the population of Earthland has the ability to use magic, though anyone from this world has the potential to use magic. Most just lack the aptitude."

"How does a mage guild work, exactly?" Katsuyu asked, getting the suspicion that Naruto would not ask the question.

"Mage guilds are simply guilds that mages join for the sake of organization. They enable mages to more easily obtain jobs, which can be anything from essentially completing chores to slaying demons that are terrorizing people," the man said patiently. He was saw no reason to be rude, and they did deserve some answers. "There are actually two different types of guilds: legal and dark. Legal guilds operate under the laws set forth by the Magic Council, which governs all of the mages on the continent. Dark guilds do not operate under those laws and often carry out illegal jobs, such as performing assassinations."

Naruto and Katsuyu both saw the need to keep that information in mind, especially the part about assassinations. It made it clear that they were in a world that would react harshly to killing.

"But I need to be on the move. I have work to do. To that end, I would appreciate it if the content of this conversation was kept secret. If I had not seen a figure falling out of an Anima, then I would not have even spoken of this to you. If you are unable to keep it a complete secret, I would prefer that you only speak of it to Makarov."

"Sure thing," Naruto said as he cut off the chakra to the Rasengan. "What's your name, by the way?"

"I am Mystogan," the man said as he turned around. "I must be going now. I wish you luck in finding a way back home. I suggest that you do not try to go to Edolas though. You will not find the answers you are looking for there."

"I guess I'll have to believe you on that. I'm Naruto Uzumaki, by the way," Naruto said.

Before he even finished speaking, Mystogan turned into mist and disappeared.

"Not very talkative," Naruto muttered. "Once you see Granny Tsunade, you might want to tell her about that though. If this Makarov guy can't help me find a way back home, then it looks like I'll have to wait for someone in our world to find a way to bring me back."

"I will make sure to tell her," Katsuyu said. "It was fortunate that we encountered that man before I ran out of chakra. Otherwise, I would have been unable to deliver the news. I trust that you will continue to try to find a way home, even after I dispel?"

"Yeah, I don't plan on giving up," Naruto said with a firm nod. "Now, let's get to town and try to find this Makarov guy. I might be able to find something else out before you dispel. The more I find out, the easier it'll be for them to get me home, right?"

"That is correct. Keep a positive attitude," Katsuyu said. Truthfully, the slug was nowhere nearly as optimistic as Naruto. After all, a successful rescue of someone that had been sent to another dimension was not something that she had even heard of before.

* * *

It did not take long for Naruto to reach Magnolia and then to find his way to Fairy Tail. He had been unable to sustain Sage Mode after he reached the city, but it had not mattered, really. After all, Mystogan had made Fairy Tail seem kind of like a small ninja village but without the more ninja-ish traits.

Truthfully, he was running off of little more than fumes. He had been fighting Pain half an hour ago and had used the Kyubi's chakra and Sage Mode a number of times. As a result, he was exhausted and likely would have collapsed already if not for his sheer willpower.

Even so, Naruto had taken the time to take note of his surroundings as he made his way through the city.

He would not say that their technology was superior to what they had back home, but the two were certainly different. It seems like each world was more advanced in certain areas but less advanced in other areas. It was hard for him to describe it though.

The guild hall that Fairy Tail called home was not the most stunning place that Naruto had ever seen, but it definitely looked nice. He especially liked the orange doors and the orange window frames. The gold-colored sign above the door with the name of the guild in blue between two gold fairies that had tails was another nice touch.

He opened one of the doors and entered the guild hall, not sure what to expect on the other side.

What he found looked more like a large bar with rectangular tables spread out than a guild hall. Still he was sure that he was at the right place.

Looking around, Naruto's first impression was that he had died and gone to Jiraiya's version of heaven. There were at least thirty girls in the room, and at least two-thirds of them looked like they were smuggling cantaloupes underneath their shirts.

Upon seeing a specific girl at the bar, he had to amend that thought. They clearly were not smuggling anything under their shirts.

After all, not all of the girls wore shirts, apparently. The one at the bar was either wearing nothing above her waist but a bra or a bikini top. They generally showed the same amount of skin, so it really did not matter which one it was to the average male.

A girl with long white hair and bright blue eyes that wore maroon dress adorned with a pink bow and ribbons began to make her way toward him at that point. Out of all the girls in the room, he suspected that she was the most well developed one. She was not simply attractive though. There seemed to be something about her that simply brightened the room around her.

"Hello," she said cheerfully. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I was hoping to talk to Makarov about something," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I don't know what he looks like though, so could you tell me if he's around?"

"He's sitting on the bar," she said, pointing to a short elderly man that was sitting on top of the bar. He seemed to be staring at Naruto intently.

"Come with me, and we can speak in private," Makarov said as he jumped off of the bar and began to make his way to the basement.

"Nice meeting you," Naruto said, waving at the girl that had greeted him as he made his way down to the basement.

Once Naruto was in the basement and the door was shut, Makarov stared at Naruto again for a moment.

"What is it that you needed to speak with me about?" he asked.

"I met someone on the road that said you might be able to help me. His name was Mystogan," Naruto said. He could tell that he had sparked the mage's attention at that. "I was sucked up by this vortex in the sky. He called it an Anima. I was wondering if you knew of a way to get back home."

"That is most irregular," Makarov said with a frown. "You are not from Earthland or Edolas, are you? If you were from Earthland, you could just travel back to your home. And if you were from Edolas, you would not have needed to hear the name _Anima_ from Mystogan. Am I correct so far?"

Makarov frowned slightly after he finished speaking. He had suspected that Mystogan was from Edolas, but practically hearing it confirmed and learning that he had at least headed towards the Anima the boy before him had appeared through… it was quite unexpected. He simply did not know what to make of it.

"That's right," Naruto said with a nod. "I'm from a place called the Elemental Nations. Have you heard of it?"

"No, I can't say that I have," Makarov said as he closed his eyes. "I have never heard of any worlds other than Earthland and Edolas. Before this, I had never believed that there were any other worlds out there."

"So you don't know how I can get back," Naruto said with a sigh. "Mystogan said something like that too. He said that the Anima brought me here instead of Edolas, so I'd probably die or something if I tried to get back the same way."

"I would trust in Mystogan's words then," Makarov said grimly. "I can understand that you may wish to return home badly, but it would be a bad idea to be reckless about it."

"I'll be careful," Naruto said. "But do you know of anyone else who might know of a way back?"

"Hmm… there is one person that might be able to help, but it's a long shot," Makarov said thoughtfully. "I have a friend on the Magic Council. If you were to approach him and tell him that I sent you, he should be able to discretely see if the Magic Council has any information on other worlds. You may have to tell him about your situation, but he is trustworthy."

"Great!" Naruto exclaimed. "How do I find him?"

"I'll answer your question in a few days," Makarov said, making Naruto stop in his tracks. "I would not mind helping someone who is stranded in a dimension that is not their own. However, simply letting you leave as you are would be a bad idea. You need to at least know some basic knowledge about this world before you leave. It will enable you to fit in better. Once I am satisfied that you can at least appear to fit in, I will tell you exactly where you can find him. Is that acceptable to you?"

Naruto only had to think about it for a moment. Approaching his situation like a mission, he had to admit that it would not very bright to just keep rushing into everything without getting some information. He could not be rash about something like this. Plus, Makarov did say that the only lead he had was a long shot, so having to wait a few days did not sound that bad.

"Okay, I'll stay until then," Naruto said. He frowned when a thought occurred to him though. "I don't have any money from this world though, so I'm not sure how I can pay for my food or anything."

"Don't worry about it," Makarov said with a chuckle. "You'll be a guest until you leave, so we'll take care of everything. But first, what is your name?"

"Oh, I'm Naruto Uzumaki," he said with a bright smile. "I don't suppose you have a bed down here I can go to sleep on, do you? I'm pretty exhausted."

Makarov immediately moved to a nearby closet and removed a cot and a pillow from it. "It's not quite a bed, but it is better than nothing."

"Thanks," Naruto said as Makarov set the cot up for him.

"I will inform the guild that you are a guest. When you wake up, I'll introduce you to everyone," Makarov said as he headed for the stairs. "I won't tell anyone about your situation either. I'll simply say that you're a personal guest of mine and are from a distance land. It's true and should keep most of the members off of your back. They can be quite nosey at times."

Naruto chuckled as the old mage left the basement.

"Good luck," Katsuyu said as she suddenly crawled out of Naruto's jacket. "I'll tell Lady Tsunade everything the moment that I can."

With that, she began to disappear.

Naruto was already asleep when she spoke, however, preventing him from hearing her parting words.

* * *

Naruto groggily opened his eyes and immediately saw that someone had just walked into the basement. Wiping his eyes, he saw that it was the same person that had greeting him when he arrived at the guild hall.

"Oh, it looks like you're finally awake," she said with a smile. "Master just asked me to check on you. He figured that you would sleep for a few hours, but you ended up sleeping through the evening and night. It's morning now."

"Seriously?" Naruto asked as he sat up, feeling surprised. It had been a while since he had slept that long. In fact, he could not remember ever sleeping quite that long. He did go into his eight tailed state, use Sage Mode a few times against Pain, get sucked through an interdimensional vortex, and use Sage Mode for over five minutes after arriving in this new world. The combined exhaustion from all of those events could not be ignored.

"Yes, you must have been quite exhausted. But now that you're up, you can come upstairs. Breakfast is about to be served," she said with a kind smile. "I'm Mirajane, by the way. Master told us that you are from far away and will be staying as a guest for a few days. I hope you enjoy your stay."

"Thanks," Naruto said with a grin as he rose to his feet. He quickly began to follow Mirajane as she headed up the stairs.

Upon arriving upstairs, Naruto saw that only about a dozen people were present. A single glance through the windows told him that the sun had risen only an hour or two ago though, so that was understandable.

"Hello Naruto, how did you sleep?" Makarov asked as the shinobi sat down at the bar.

"It went well," Naruto answered. "By the way, what day is it today? I kind of lost track of time."

"It's the fifteen of January," Makarov answered casually.

Naruto frowned for a moment at that. He had fought Pain in October. That meant that the two worlds were more different than he had thought.

"By the way, this is Cana Alberona," Makarov said, gesturing to the girl that was sitting a few seats down the bar from him. Naruto recognized her as the girl from the bar that he saw when he arrived at the guild hall. "You'll probably see her more than most."

"Nice to meet you," she said with a smile.

"Same here," Naruto said with a smile of his own.

"She can introduce you to some of the other members around your age," Makarov said.

Naruto nodded, unsure of what else he could do. He was not too pleased that he was being introduced to more people instead of learning about the world so he could try to find a way home, but his only options was to go with the flow, so to speak.

* * *

A/N- The ending was a bit abrupt, but I just couldn't seem to end it quite right.

Anyways, I appreciate the reviews that I received for the last chapter. It seemed most of the people had input on the pairing at the very least. I'm not making that decision too early, but it's still appreciated. I won't be pairing Naruto with more than one girl though. I could not write such a pairing. It's simply beyond my current abilities.

This is the last chapter I have written, so I have some more writing to do before I can post again. Until then, have fun.


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